These movies were pure male fodder, for young lads, petrol heads and showboaters, Reynolds was (at the time) the epitome of the cool ladies man, not necessarily big and strong but rebellious, dashing and cocky, Errol Flynn in a fast car. Back in the late 70's, early 80's there was a definite splurge of these goofy fast car comedies, very loose plots about getting from A to B in a variety of vehicles, lots of slapstick, tomfoolery and sexy ladies. So the Bandit steps up to the challenge with his sidekick the Snowman, they gotta collect the merchandise and haul it back east, if they manage it they stand to win $80,000!ĭirected by Hal Needham and the first of his movies to feature fast cars and Burt Reynolds. The beer was also supposedly one of the finest beers in the USA at the time, but I still have no idea why it couldn't be sold in the east.

The snag is, Coors Beer was not allowed to be sold east of the Mississippi River, because.I don't know. No particular reason for this challenge I might add, this millionaire father and son duo merely want to see if a driver can succeed in the bet, for fun, because.reasons, don't question it. The premise goes like this, two mega rich Texan cowboys want a driver to smuggle a load of Coors Beer from Texas (in the west), to Georgia (in the east), within a set time limit. A lot of the interest here focuses on the automobiles, well the Pontiac Trans Am, but if you have a thing for big American rigs then you'll enjoy this too.

In an odd way, now I think about it, this franchise could well be looked upon as the 'Fast and the Furious' of its day. Not solely of course, but these fast drivin' Southern cowboys really grabbed the public's attention back in the late 70's. Twas this movie that helped along the creation of the popular cult TV show 'The Dukes of Hazzard'.

How many smokey and the bandit movies